


Suburban Landscape, Suburban Thoughts

by orphan_account



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: 7/11, Angst, Anxiety, Fluff, Introspection, Mentions of Evil Rick, Mentions of Mr Jellybean, Mentions of Snowball, Mild Language, Morty-Centric Fic, No romance/relationship, Rick being OOC by caring about Morty, School Assingments, Self-Esteem Issues, Stress, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:27:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23424742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The walk would hopefully clear his head and the coffee would give Morty the energy to continue on with his essay, the cold evening air was starting to making him feel a little bit more awake.Not for the first time today Morty felt a wave of anxiety wash over him. It felt like such a physical thing ...
Comments: 5
Kudos: 35





	Suburban Landscape, Suburban Thoughts

Morty adjusted the scarf around his neck as he began his journey from home to the 7/11 a few blocks away to get a coffee. Dead leaves crunched underfoot as Morty made his way past suburban house after house, hands in his jacket pockets, headphones in.  
He had a research essay due next week for science class and in spite of all his academic shortcomings (to put it lightly) and the fact that he would be lucky to scrape together a C grade, he still wanted to do well.  
Sure he could ask Rick for help but in all honesty Rick wasn’t very good when it came to the mundane. The last time Morty had asked him for help with a science project his flair for the dramatic had got the better of him, resulting in a device that turned peoples skin inside out. A brilliant invention that defied the laws of physics but not so great for the school science fair…  
The other reason he didn’t want any help was because he wanted to shock everyone, prove to them (and to himself) that he could be smart. Maybe then he would no longer be known as the dumb kid in class, the kid who no one wanted to be partners with for group projects, the one who teachers turned a blind eye to, silently disappointed that he would bring down the class average…. 

Morty was now half way to the 7/11. Suburbia morphed into flat urban emptiness. In the horizon the last rays of sun were disappearing from a purple-blue sky the colour of a bruise. The walk would hopefully clear his head and the coffee would give Morty the energy to continue on with his essay, the cold evening air was starting to making him feel a little bit more awake.  
Not for the first time today Morty felt a wave of anxiety wash over him. It felt like such a physical thing, like all his organs had been dumped into freezing water while a steady drip of adrenaline made his heart beat fast and his hands shake but never enough to shake him out of the tired, thoughtless trance he felt like he was in.  
His thoughts weren’t even fully formed thoughts, just out of focus images, blurry colours, dreamlike. Neurons firing away in his brain creating chemical reactions that made him feel terrible things. 

_A letter F written in sickly red marker on his essay._ Dread. 

_Morty sitting alone in the cafeteria at a dirty, chewing gum sticky table._ Loneliness. 

_His mother at the dinner table, paperwork from the school strewn across it, pinching the bridge of her nose as Morty would have to repeat another year._ Shame.

_She’d take it out on Rick. ’No more adventures!’_. The anger and disappointment in her voice made him wince.  
Morty took a deep breath of the cold night air and tried to will himself back into reality. He felt frustration at himself for letting his imagination run off like that, for letting these imaginary scenarios become so intense. 

~~~~

Morty sipped his coffee, it was good (for $1). He hadn’t even realised how cold he was until he held the flimsy plastic cup in his hands.  
The sky was a deep inky blue, a crescent moon cast weak light down onto the flat urban landscape, yellow street lights and the neon 7/11 signage lit up the rest. 

Morty paused and watched from the glow at a bird flying above him, probably returning late to its nest. As cheesy as it was, Morty wished he could fly away, pack up and leave, slip into the cracks in the road and disappear to another dimension. He supposed he actually could, but how far could he get?. What skills did he even have to survive? Who or what dimension would even want him? For a second, still images of Mr Jellybean, and of Evil Rick’s secret hideout with hundreds of tortured Morties flashed past in his minds eye. He shivered.  
Maybe that was all he was good for… 

_No._

Gripping the coffee cup a little bit firmer, Morty began his journey back home.

He made it back to the familiar shape of his house under the dark sky. Back to his familiar messy room. He took off his scarf and jacket, adding them to the pile of clothes strewn about his floor. Also on the floor was the empty dog bed for Snowball. Even though Snowball had left a long time ago, Morty still missed him from time to time and the untouched dog bed added a pang of emptiness to his chest. Wherever Snowball was now, Morty hoped he was doing well.  
He sat down crosslegged on his bed and began to type away on his laptop, chipping away at his essay. It was slow progress but it was progress nevertheless.  
That was until familiar footsteps padded up the stairs.  
Ignoring it, Morty typed out another sentence.  
The footsteps crossed the hallway, rounded the corner.  
Morty changed tabs, searching something up on Google.  
Footsteps getting closer.  
Morty clicked on a journal article about bromelian enzymes and began to read it wh-  
The door to his room creaked open, Rick’s head peaked through before the rest of his figure joined him. He was met with Morty’s steady, slightly irritated gaze.  
‘Morty, I need help carrying some barrels of sulphate gems back to my ship in the giant scorpion dimension…’  
‘…’  
‘…You wanna give me a hand?’ Rick added when Morty didn’t reply.  
Morty breathed out and rubbed his eyes. ’I - I can’t right now Rick, I have this big essay due soon and, and I just want to get it done.’  
‘I can get it done in five minutes if you like.’ Rick leant against the doorframe, halfway between Morty’s bedroom and the hallway.  
‘No, I mean, no, no thanks Rick. I wanna do this on my own y’know?’ The upwards inflection in his voice gave away his deception. Rick pointedly narrowed his eyes.  
‘Mortyyy, what are you playing at, what’s this really about, huh?’ Rick didn’t bother to hide his irritation but the fact that he hadn’t left yet meant he was curious.  
Morty looked sideways at the empty coffee cup on his bedside table. He wasn’t a very good liar so he decided to be honest, annoyance and all. ’ _Nothing_ , Rick, I just wanna do well on this essay so I can prove that I’m actually good at something and everyone can stop acting like I’m a huge disappointment.’  
When Rick hadn’t moved he added ‘I can help you in a bit, just give me a few hours.’ He began furiously typing, trying to hide his reddening face behind the laptop screen, embarrassed about admitting that he knew how useless he was.  
Rick’s frown deepened. ‘Nobody thinks you’re useless, Morty.’  
Morty felt his face heat up more as he continued to type, barely taking in the words he was writing.  
Rick took an experimental step into the room. When Morty didn’t immediately yell at him to get out, he took a few more steps. Then, when it became clear that all Morty was going to do was glare daggers at him over his laptop, Ricked wheeled the desk chair over to the bedside. He sat down on the chair, backwards so that his arms were folded over the headrest.  
‘Morty’  
‘…’  
‘C’mon Morty.’  
‘…’  
Mortyyy.’  
‘…’  
Morty continued to shun him.  
‘Im sorry Morty. I’ve been hard on you, too hard.’ Behind Morty’s attempted poker face, Rick saw him twitch. He had taken the bait.  
‘It’s not you Rick. I’ve been failing school long before you got here.’ Morty drew his knees up to hid head, face hidden in his hands. ‘Im just a stupid piece of shit idiot who can’t do anything right and I don’t deserve to feel good because I’m just an idiot, idiot pieceofuckingshitwho-‘  
‘Jesus Morty, it’s ok-calm down.’ He knew better to say _it’s just an essay_ , because he knew it wasn’t. Rick couldn’t reach Morty’s back from where he was seated so he settled for putting his hand the top of Morty’s head. He gave a little pat, _there there_.  
This was awkward as hell.  
Rick cleared his throat.  
’School isn’t everything. And grades aren’t a measure of intelligence.’ It was cliche and obvious but it was also true.  
Morty sniffled and Rick continued on.  
‘I know you feel like you aren’t learning as quickly as others, but I see you every day growing smarter and, and sharper and more confident than you were the day before.’  
Morty looked up from his fingers, ‘Really? You think so?’  
‘Yeah, I do. And you may not show it in the classroom, but out there’ Rick waved his hand across the room, gesturing to nothing in particular but indicating that he meant the multiverse. ‘You’re cunning and quick and you’re my little helper. _I’m damn proud of you Morty.’_ Rick hadn't known how true true those words were until he said them. He was fiercly proud of his grandson, and he obviously hadnt told him that enough for him to be so upset.  
‘You really mean that?’  
He gave Morty’s hair a ruffle.  
_‘Of course I do.’_  
_With all my heart._ Morty wiped his eyes and took a few breaths to calm himself. Rick let his hand fall back to his side as Morty readjusted himself so that he was sitting cross legged again.   
’Thanks Rick. I still need to do this essay though.’  
Rick sighed internally, disappointed but he wasn’t going to show it. ‘Ok Morty.’  
He got up to leave.  
‘Hey, Rick?’  
He turned around.  
‘If you wanna wait an hour, I can still help you with those barrels. I will have finished this paragraph by then.’  
’Sounds good. I’ll be in my lab.’

Rick closed the door and Morty was alone in his room again. Although he was still struggling with his essay, he felt better like a pressure had been lifted.

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking about what I was going through when I was 14 and kind of projected a lot of my 14 year old self’s thoughts and feelings onto Morty (I still struggle with similar thoughts but not to such an extent).  
> I tried really hard to describe the feelings and physical effects emotions and thoughts can have and also the snowballing of being stressed about homework to being stressed about your entire existence.  
> I think Rick is OOC in this due to the fact that I think cannon Rick doesn’t respect Morty’s personal space and this Rick kind of does (aka not immediately barging into Morty’s room) Also this Rick actually shows Morty that he cares about him. 
> 
> Im going to be honest, i don’t know who would read this fanfic. I didn’t make it with an audience in mind, that being said let me know if you liked it.


End file.
